This evening I randomly stumbled upon the UO soundtrack.
I was working on something entirely different (not this post) when this music came on. I had to stop and come write these thoughts down. Forgive my stream of consciousness as I try and make sense of it.
In my mind's eye I suddenly had images of playing a brand new newbie character and wandering around a large capital city. The world of this game is unfamiliar to me, but it's a feeling I had before of wandering around a city looking for potion shops or somewhere to find a shop keeper.
I'm reminded of asking people in local (not global or region) chat channels for directions, and having to figure things out together. I don't recall this being an actual memory, but I wandered into a group of players sitting around a camp fire waiting for day before leaving the safety of the city walls.
Slower... yes, it's a slower feeling.
The worlds today are rushed, hectic, and we're always going somewhere because we know where we have to go. We know what we have to do. We have micro objectives. Everything is prescribed, known, expected. ​
My nostalgic rush reminds me of days where the entire experience was so slow that logging in and walking around was itself an adventure.​
The feelings are almost emotional in a way. It brought back those feelings of not knowing anything and feeling so small, lost, and insignificant in a virtual world. Yet at the same time it was (is) a glorious feeling to have no idea what the future holds.
I feel a huge nostalgia rush coming over me lately. There's an enormous pull to go play games that feel more like virtual worlds again. Tonight's 'episode' and almost day-dream vision of staring off into space while listening to these midis only fuels that desire.
There's Agnarr, the upcoming Everquest time-locked progression server. I've also been looking at Legends of Aria which has components of NWN and UO.
Perhaps Agnarr will be a good place to start once again, but I'm open to your ideas. I can't be the only one who slips into these daydreams and experiences such powerful feeling simply from memories. Am I?​
P.S. Which do you like better, the Midi above or this version below?​
P.P.S. I felt a picture of The Realm was entirely fitting for a featured image. Those who played as long as I did will remember it hits quite a few of these notes.
Following the MMO Bookclub, I just restarted fresh in Lord of the Rings Online on the Brandywine server.
Its certainly a nice world to adventure in. I dont feel rushed.
Check them out, theyre doing 3 months cycles and switching mmos. You wall around in Bree and see.a bunch of Bookclub walking around, great community.
Higgs (Shimrah)
Yes I completely agree. The Realm was my first and I really had no idea what I was doing. It was very social because of that. Same with early EQ. I spent my first two hours lost in that tree city, then got down and wiped out.
There were no shiny arrows (or rings floating over NPC heads to tell me where to go…cough). It all gets back to my basic point I’ve been preaching for 10 years and nobody seems to care about. They aren’t hard anymore and everybody is a hero.
I’ve also recently learned that malls and movie theatres suck now, so maybe I’m just old.